- Virtuosic Musical Genius (Who else can write a song with a time sig of 65/16!)- Mature- Modest- Great Songwriter- Deep, meaningful, and sometimes quircky lyrics- Not afraid to try new things- Huge range of musical genres

Seven Swans is my favourite of his, it's a simply beautiful album, and I like how concise it feels. Michigan is good and Illinois is excellent but both are a little too long for my liking, the really brilliant stuff slightly muffled by a bit too much padding on the albums. But when those albums hit the heights (Chicago especially) they're sublime. Got to love the absurd song titles on those two albums as well. As a bonus Songs for Christmas makes for good listening every holiday season, it was a nice touch to release that.

Enjoy Your Rabbit is an interesting curio of his, an electronica album. It's not completely my thing, but it's a decent stab at an area he's moved away from since, with the possible exception of his (excellent) Castanets cover on this year's Dark Was the Night compilation album.

The only infuriating thing is (and it's all the more puzzling considering how prolific he had been up to 2005) it's now been over four years since Illinois and still no new studio album (let alone another US state album). There's been a CD of offcuts from Illinois, the Christmas songs boxset, a reworking of Enjoy Your Rabbit, his BQE project. I wonder if he's been left with writer's block after the success of Illinois or if he maybe just wanted to take a hiatus after so many albums in such a short space of time. But I really hope he's back next year with a new record.

In short though, Seven Swans is one of my favourite albums of the decade.

"Excuse me Miss, do you like pineapple?"

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying"

But yeah, Illinois is one of my favorite albums ever...well, except for the title track. And Michigan has some great songs on it, but a lot of really mediocre ones, as well. Oh, and Sevens Swans is consistently lurvely. In any case, Sufjan needs to get off his ass and release more music! :-O

Surprised that avalanche wasn't mentioned. Outtakes fro illonois and my personal favorite (three different versions of chicago!). Also, if you go to the asthamitic kitty website, you can get a sneak peek at one of the shorter movements from bqe. Trippy stuff, but pure sufjan. I hope he wrks with a sympony more often, because it's awesome!

Sufjan is probably my favorite artist. I love Illinois to death. I don't know if I'd objectively call it his best album, but it's my favorite nonetheless. He really needs to put out a new album. <3 <3 <3

Hmm. It's nice stuff -- I'll probably buy some for my parents so they have something decent for me to listen to when I'm at their house. My brother will probably like it, too.

It doesn't sound like something I'll listen to at home, though. There's lots of skill and talent, and some decent songwriting, but it sounds a bit hollow to me. I think the problem is that he's just not crazy enough.

It might not be 65/16 (but I think so). The song I'm referring to is concerning the ufo sighting... Its the first song on illonis. There's no beat, and its near impoosible to find some kind of rhythm. You know its there, because the piano is definately rhythmic, its just that everytime you think you've counted it out, he skips or adds a few beats to your measure. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough. If anyone has some rhythmic insight to this song, I would love to hear it.

I only own Illinoise but I think it's a delightful album, if overly long. He is a very sincere and honest songwriter, which is also brought out in his song arrangements. All those harmonies, strings and twee sounding flutes. It's all so wholesome! And John Wayne Gacy Jnr is on my list of songs to 'Make Tin Start Bawling Like A Baby In A Public Place'

Can anyone more knowledgeable than me explain what makes this an EP, rather than an album? I thought it was traditionally based on length, but this thing is 60 minutes - longer than Seven Swans, an "album."

(Mind you, the surprise was a pleasant one. I was expecting a handful of maybe-interesting b-sides, and instead I got a whole hour of new Sufjan music. Yay!)

I suspect the only reason this is defined as an EP is because that's what Stevens has termed it (apparently in the UK at least anything over 25 minutes is classified as an album for chart purposes). I remember The Fiery Furnaces doing a 40 minute EP, and I thought that was long! Maybe they'll have to update this part of Wikipedia:

First of all, no one has given credit to A Sun Came, which contains a ton of his best songs (Loverless Bed, Rake, Dumb I Sound, Kill, Oracle Said Wander, etc)

Secondly, nobody is here.

You'd think after all his mainstreamness since 2005 more people would be on here talking about how indie he is.

It might not be 65/16 (but I think so). The song I'm referring to is concerning the ufo sighting... Its the first song on illonis. There's no beat, and its near impoosible to find some kind of rhythm. You know its there, because the piano is definately rhythmic, its just that everytime you think you've counted it out, he skips or adds a few beats to your measure. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough. If anyone has some rhythmic insight to this song, I would love to hear it.

Sufjan says the song has NO time signature in the Crooked River trailer.

You'd think after all his mainstreamness since 2005 more people would be on here talking about how indie he is.

Nah, brah. Mainstreamness and indie are mutually exclusive. Us hip xkcd kids liked him way before he was cool, you see.

I'm assuming this is sarcasm.

Anybody see him on this last tour?I thought it was good, but overly visual. And I totally get why he does that, he has talked about it enough, so it is better than the flashiness of artificial musician's overly visual shows (Boy bands, any one who sings who has at some point acted on the Disney Channel, and bands that should have quit music years ago (Rolling Stones)), but I'm still not a fan of it. I guess it (the over-the-top visuals I'm talking about are: dancers, video, excessive lights, costumes) goes well with the cluttered sound of the album, though.

Why in the world am I a fan of Sufjan when I am a die-hard minimalist? He is just too good, man.